
Bit of a mixed up tea this Tuesday
I guess by now you all may have heard that Vancouver is under a bit of snow.
I KNOW! RIGHT!?! My poor little garden flowers…which might be made for the snow…but still.
There really wasn’t anything to do about it but go shopping and have some tea.
Actually, I should have been working and Clover should have been studying for her midterm…but whatever. 😀
You all probably noticed that my child has been looking a bit blonder lately. She’s got that ombre thing happening, you know, where she looks like an alien with tin foil all over her hair and can listen to BBC Radio thru her teeth for 30 minutes, and now, the side effect of all that free broadcasting thru teeth, is that she looks completely washed out in my Chanel Coco Rouge lipstick, which she loves to nick for an evening out.
So high on C’s priority list was finding a red lipstick for evening which actually looks good on her. And for C, it has to be organic, cruelty free and affordable. So we did the lipstick run-around and when she was finished trying seventeen different shades and five different brands, she ended up looking very pink around her chin and cheeks from the Kleenex and lipstick smears.
By the end of the lipstick adventure I was dying for a cup of tea and C was feeling starving so we stopped at a new cafe called Faubourg Paris Café and I ordered my Earl Gray and C a ham and cheese croissant.
This is a lovely cafe with a patisserie where they make fabulous pastries, but the Mariage Freres Earl Gray tea they served was just way too weak and flavourless for me. And I did let it steep for a long time.
On the other hand, the cafe is lovely and bright and twinkly with loads of crystal drop chandeliers and pendant lamps, there is a gently projected movie on one wall and the chairs, with the Lucite centres and painted feathers, are lovely.
So back at home, I still wanted my lovely, fragrant Earl Gray and so brewed myself a cup from my super secret, only for me stash of loose tea from Fortnum and Mason and I chose this sweet little cup to have it in.
I love this frosty rose from Royal Southerland and it seems like a fine homage to this ridiculous February snow.
So I had my tea and C got into her sweats and her cue cards and I sat down at the kitchen table to think about my personal journal and see if I could come up with a page.
You know, this page was so hard won. I loved the words “experimental genius” and tried to form a thought from among the other words on the page but it just wouldn’t come and wouldn’t come…and I’d been staring at it off and on for about a week now.
So I sat there and had a little meditation over the page and suddenly there the words were! Right there all along!
The words say: “await the experimental genius in the magnificent fabric of the mind’s eye today”
I saw the experimental genius as swirling colours. Bold and bright colours, mixing and rushing in, taking over an empty space.
But I also saw the experimental genius as small and shy and quiet and softly moving in on silent wings, and you turn around and there he is. So suddenly I was painting an owl. A Little Owl. One of the smallest owls out there.
And then I dulled down the magnificent fabric with a little bit of soft, white tissue paper, a little imperfection, so we don’t take ourselves too seriously as artists. 😀
Sharing tea with Terri and Martha and Sandi and Bernedeen, and, just after I drive C to the uni to take her midterm, I’ll be around to catch up with everyone.
Martha's Favorites!
I always love to read about you and C. It makes my heart glad. Love your tea cup. Blessings, Martha
Veronica
Thank you so much sweetie. I love knowing that you come over and read my blog posts and I really appreciate that you’re there for me. 🙂
Bernideen's Tea Time Blog
I agree with Martha – lovely posting and sharing of times with your daughter!
Veronica
Thank you Bernideen. I’m certain that my days with C living at home are a bit numbered so am enjoying each moment. 🙂
Lavender Cottage
One sure has to have the right hair and skin tone to pull off a look with red lipstick – C looks like she had fun trying the different brands and looks nice in the mirror.
Tea out together would have been fun – look at all the pretty colours of macarons!
Judith
Veronica
Hi Judith. Lol, C is finding this out the hard way. The raspberry reds look the best on her I think. 🙂
Rosewalk Cottage
Lovely post. I always love reading about times with your daughter. I cut some of my snowdrops yesterday and put them in vases for photos. We had an ice storm and now they are blooming. They are always the first thing to bloom in the garden
~Clara.
Veronica
Thank you so much Clara. I think I need some more snowdrops beside my bed so will go get some today too. 🙂
artful affirmations
Hello Veronica,
First off I just have to say I love your journal page! I do enjoy found poetry, and you did a creative job on yours!
Times with daughters are so precious! Your tea time after shopping is lovely. Too bad about the tea, but the atmosphere seems wonderful. How fab you have a secret stash of tea!
I do love your vintage white rose cup! That style has always been a favorite of mine too.
Hugs,
Terri
Veronica
Hi Terri, thank you so much. It’s funny how long some of these pages take me and once I get going it’s done and then I feel proud but almost sad because it’s done. Does that make sense? Lol. Yes, too bad about that tea. In hindsight, it may have been an old tea bag, or maybe exposed to the air too long or something, because usually that company makes high quality teas. 🙂
Sandi
Good morning Veronica,
What fun you and C have! She’s a brave girl to wear a red lipstick. I’ve never been that brave. I enjoyed seeing all those lovely macarons. We don’t have them here. Your little owl is cute and your teacup is lovely. Thanks for sharing with us and coming to tea.
Blessings,
Sandi
Veronica
Hi Sandi. She doesn’t wear any make up during the day and usually only mascara and a bit of lipstick for an evening out, but she does like my red ones. Also, it looks better on her to put it on and wipe it off so it looks like a blush of dark rather than the full force. You might try that, or try some of the stain type lipsticks maybe? 🙂
Kathryn Ross
Hi Veronica! I am entranced with your art and have enjoyed scrolling through some back posts – the silversmithing is quite beyond me but fascinating – and I am loving your pages with the words randomly coming together to say something amazing! How grand! Of course you deserve multiple tea breaks between works of art!! Looking forward to more of your work and tutorial over a cuppa!
Joy!
Kathy
Veronica
Thank you so much Kathryn. 😀 I keep thinking I should make some downloadable PDFs about these pages with maybe templates or sketches for little bits and just let people try their own. Now just to figure out how to make downloadable PDFs in my spare time. Wait! What spare time. 😀
daryledelstein
i adore Lipstick Queen .. lovely colors and no animal testing … her hair looks lovely … and i am so jealous of your free flowing creativity .. i bought a journal i planned on collaging but cant bring myself to begin to add anything to the pages .. this used to happen to me with sketch books and ungesso’d canvases … making that first mark, soiling the untouched is very hard for me .. another reason i stick to photography …
Veronica
Aw Daryl, just do it. Life is short, sketchbooks are cheap. You know what I do to psych myself out? I leave the first couple pages blank so I can always rip the page out if I ruin it and hate it without ruining the sketchbook. Sounds to me like you need an ephemera care package. 🙂
Johanna
Hi veronica,
so nice to join you and your sweet daughter on this fabulous day. The tea room looks fantastic. Although the tea was a bit weak, the atmosphere is wonderful. And those macarons! Did you have some? And in the end your own tea inspired your thoughts. I loved to see this tea post. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Have a great time. Best greetings, Johanna
Veronica
Hi Johanna, I was really tempted to have those macarons but I love them so much that if I start eating them, it’s hard to stop! 😀
Amanda
Oh poor Vancouver with all the snow. What a strange winter we’ve been having. Berlin had just two weeks of winter this year. I love the work you are doing in old books… especially the birds from a couple of post ago. Looking forward to seeing more!!
Veronica
I know, I know! And our place in England is like a swamp at the moment. Robert got the car stuck up the drive to the garage. At least Vancouver is melting and Oxfordshire is drying up. Thank you so much for the kind words about my art. I was just sitting down to some drawing today but got distracted learning how to make a desk top calendar in Photoshop. Butterfly brain…lol. 😀
Sarav
Veronica, I know I’ve said it before–but Wow! you are brilliant!! I love that journal page, especially the intensity of the owl’s eyes. Very, very cool. The words that you came up with are quite wise–maybe that’s where the owl comes in? 😉 How ironic you were just feeling sorry for the people with snow and then you get some of the white stuff! The universe definitely has a sense of humor. 🙂
Veronica
Thank you so much Sara. 😀 I remember walking thru a forest in the interior of BC and there was snow and everything was silent, and suddenly a huge horned owl lifted off a tree right beside me. I didn’t know he was there till he moved and he flew off without a sound. That was one of the most unreal moments in my life. Since then I always thought of owls as silent and shy.
Universe…yeah…funny! At least it’s all melting now.
Sarav
I love how silent everything is in the forest when there’s snow. Thank you for reminding me of that. That must have been incredible. I would have screamed for sure, both from surprise and the mind-boggling thrill of it. Wonderful story 🙂
debr @ frugal little bungalow
Oh look at the poor flowers in the snow! Your owl is adorable / it is fun to watch your journal come alive.
I am a coffee drinker in the morning but winter afternoons find me drinking tea and it is Earl Grey, though nothing fancy; just a tea bag : )
Looks like a great day with your daughter …and her lipstick! : )
Veronica
Hi Debra, coffee always sounds like such a good idea, especially in the mornings, and I did try to like it, but I just don’t… 🙁 Maybe it’s something you had to grow up with, and I didn’t. But I do love tea and agree with you, good old fashioned Twinings is just fine with me. 🙂
Sherry
What a nice spot for tea. Your daughter looks lovely and, I love that journal page. Very cool!
Sherry
Veronica
Thank you Sherry, it was a nice spot of tea and we’ll go there again, but this time I’ll order some green tea or herbal. 🙂
dawnsrays
You had a miraculously full and wonderful day! love those pastries and all those colors. wow!!
As always your birds are inspiring and wonderful to see.
~Dawn
Veronica
AW thank you Dawn; it was a good day. I’m really into the birds these days, aren’t I? 😀
dianecayton
Those glasses with the swimmer on the diving board are so wonderful! Did you buy them? If not, you should have my Dear.
I like to shop for lipstick but it definitely gives a girl a pink around the mouth appearance. LOL Hope she found the perfect color for her sweet face. xox
Veronica
They were just a bit fabulous, were’t they? I didn’t buy them because they are reproductions and I usually go for the original ones form the 50s and 60s. But they would be fun, hmmm, not sure what to do now. 😀 C is still thinking about the lipsticks. Starving fourth year uni student have to think about $28 organic lipsticks.
Renee
You have a gift for capturing the lovely in everyday things! I love those glasses with the lady in the swim suit and the ones beside those with the lady canoeing. I love vintage too, but I am sure I wouldn’t have resisted buying those glasses!